video for your media project free media. the end of the era soviet era oh twenty years after the soviet union's fall there is still an equal measure of love and hate for the danes back in the u.s.s.r. . libya's soldiers of fortune including former terrorists said to syria to take their revolution to president assad's doorstep. pakistan looks to beijing for support after last month's deadly drone strike ties with the u.s. in tatters. and christmas may be coming to an end in two thousand pounds a year iraq. has only just begun in twenty minutes.

three pm in moscow good to have you with us here on r.t. our top story on this day two decades ago the world's largest country ceased to exist the fall of the soviet union meant the end of the cold war and the birth of a dozen new countries but twenty years later the collapse of the u.s.s.r. still raises some unanswered questions or he's a catarina groucho beck's planes. even today many generate their own explanations for the fall of a global goliath but some putting it down to the role of just a few. ok to reach. the nineteen ninety one august coup was a turning point in the country's history with images of yeltsin standing on a tank creating a new hero yet for most here even that wasn't seen as causing a fetal crack in the soviet union it was all very sudden and shocking

i mean there were people here even months before who were shoring us that this was going to go on forever so all the billions and billions and billions that the us and put into intelligence and forecasting or proved to be completely useless the collapse of the soviet union was not so much a revolution rather it was a peaceful divorce of former republics longing for independence but the breakup led to long lasting and painful consequences pushing it's a vehicle so use the collapse of the soviet union is the biggest geopolitical disaster of the twentieth century. and in that assessment led him or putin is not alone older many russians began enjoying freedoms never imagined in the u.s.s.r. sixty percent still believe the collapse did more harm than good twenty years on russians still seem undecided over how to treat of the legacy of the u.s.s.r.

in moscow most soviet names have long been a race from the streets and people's memories but some symbols of the past stand out so rigidly it can feel like those two decades never happened this morning a man to work or and go who wasn't so took six years some thirty million dollars to restore but even the government would consider taking down what is among the most famous unofficial symbols of the u.s.s.r. . and strong were. her and a portly collective farmer were a symbol of crisp air a chance to billeted in a country with a planned economy everyone knew they would be provided with their metaphorical hammer and sickle and knew exactly how much to produce with them nineteen ninety one changed all that the post soviet economies were shattered their deficits skyrocketed production plunged and it took them years to get back on their feet in the last years a soviet union there was

a possibility before for your you know to continue with for terror and political regime but to liberalize the economy and the market in the same way as the target. but among the political elite many didn't want to support the drive to modernize and in turn save the union instead they wanted to destroy it and during that descent many republics were plunged into ethnic violence after gaining independence or before when it was clear the union was falling apart it seems for you and the national minorities started dragging the blanket to their side but it was at that time that georgia was fully included self-assertive and apprised into its territories similar ethnic clashes between armenia and azerbaijan claimed the lives of over thirty thousand people one thousand people were killed in the transnistria conflict russia remains on a peacekeeping mission there at least a thousand people were killed in a post breakup clashes between georgia and south of the search here and over one

hundred thousand word displaced into g q stan the consequences were the worst sixty thousand killed and over a million people displaced even mosco itself didn't feel secure after the fall of the berlin wall the world briefed as sigh of relief but it didn't last long when nato set about creating a new wall made of missiles the allies steadily moved towards russia incorporating former soviet republics but leaving most out. of europe's new security framework the west broke a number of promises to russia often russia could have expected that they wouldn't be nato expansion that. russia. would perhaps even join nato or become. a new system of european. collective security the feel of the us says sorry put an end to the cold war era forever a fundamental shift in global geopolitics with just

a few now calling the shots and without a powerful counterweight today's world remains far from secure the great childre r t. o r t dot com are asking what you think the collapse of the soviet union meant to the world so far thirty nine percent say would only be good if nato collapsed along with just over a quarter believe communism actually offered hope for a better future a fair say having no soviet union lead the us to go on check and fifteen percent think the world is better off without the so-called evil empire your voice what do you think click on r t dot com and have yourself. former libyan rebels are now chanting for syrians to follow their revolutionary path hundreds of mercenaries some of whom are said to be former terrorists are ready to pick up arms again to help overthrow president assad are these acts on a boy who reports from tripoli. a butcher

a dad me the owner of this keep up shop in tripoli still undecided what's the most fitting term for syria's bashar al assad. is a chemical that begins in the village of the city. of the city of. new kids the kids a lot of the people in the city. out of solidarity with their arab brothers the owners of the shop have even put on display the syrian rebels tricolor but they're very firm on where. the revolutionary support should and we don't want syria and its soldiers we have. and our people such as syria these are just on the subject we have we have enough but i think yeah we want to leave. in less than three months libyan rebels have gone from being celebrated as liberators to being called occupiers tripoli residents rally almost every week

calling on the armed militia to leave and for some of these young man who looked on adrenaline and willing to part with their rifles syria seems like the next logical destination. i don't know we're all ready to join the syrian revolution and with the help of allah we will make sure that what happened in libya will repeat itself in syria a libyan mother with the portraits of shaky borrow now ubiquitous on the streets of tripoli be some rebels even styling themselves to resemble the famous revolutionary . with the help of allah we can all belong to give aren't fighting for peace and freedom around the world. and it seems that che guevara's a deal of exporting revolutions have gotten a second birth in the middle east the arab spring has created a buoyant marketplace for soldiers of fortune they move from one revolution to another motivated by personal gain some by conviction all their spies venture if i

put out on the vision of freedom and for now at least in the freedom to leave by the gun. as a romantic and spontaneous as it may appear aiding the syrian uprising with mercenaries may not be such a genuine move video women and children in syria gunned down by snipers are involved on you tube while it's still unclear who is pulling the trigger there are terrorists snipers who are shooting at civilians men women and children blind terrorism random killing simply for the purpose of destabilizing the country or from libya or from afghanistan or pakistan foreign fighters have been brought in here by the cia and the other western services. one man's terrorist could easily be anonymous freedom fighter but for the united states it's now. a big hike in but hides one of the leaders of chippewa a militia was once on the cia most wanted list today he's

a face of the democratic leader who according to artist or sis not a group of several hundred li been rebels to syria just last month. we can't do any help to support the syrian people because we are they are facing the same situation as before and do but if she comes to leave will be will and if we could see why the syrian people who they need help to get their freedom i think we should do it the use of soldiers of fortune is hardly new in this troubled region middle eastern rulers hard them for centuries a save gars against their own populations and it now looks like the history of mercenaries in the middle east has got to its new and no less bloody chapter actually we are see tripoli. as the arab league observers mission arrives in syria the opposition insists that the number killed by government forces in iraq has surged well past five thousand but french peace campaigner terry mason says the atrocities are far from one sided. they say there is five thousand

people killed. by security forces of course it's absolutely. there is a lot of people killed but very few by the security forces most of them are healed by this armor groups they put inside the code and with the same armor groups they use in libya and know you work with some different situation between six and good people coming from media who are now in syria especially the military governor of tripoli libya is now in turkey to organize all the fight and they're due to tripoli which was the people from my kid no responsible for security in tripoli tonight they are you know all of them inside syria and the. spanish reporter was first in libya recognize them here in the inside of the top of beasts the so-called

free. syrian army but not syria. well you can always have online for more world news at r t dot com here's what's a click away right now how would dollars make you seem deadly suspicious security advice in the u.s. that says paying with cash could highlight you as a terrorist suspect. hope floats south korea sending humanitarian aid on its way to their struggle in the war all the details in a little way that our team doctor. pakistan has its eyes on the east for future partnerships with the president now firming up the country's partnership with china this after our rocky year in relations with the u.s. war ties were all but severed from the raid that killed osama bin laden without alerting is not islam a bad to last month's deadly drone strike for more on this i'm joined by joseph chang a professor of political science at hong kong university thanks very much for being with us here on r t so president the dollar you called his country's ties with china the top foreign policy priority but why would beijing want to strengthen ties

with pakistan. well pakistan has been beating best our lives throughout the history of the people's republic of china increasingly pakistan has has a certain strategic value to china because of the completion of the highway as well as the almost completion of the port china certainly hopes that it can prove landings to pakistan then open up the sea lanes to the indian ocean and bring the route of voiding the over crowded straits of malacca obviously china is no longer interested to side with the united states to pakistan against it in those soviet our lines as in the days of the cold war but pakistan remains a very important ally of china in the region as person b.

when the tire central asian region becomes more important to china in strategic as well as in energy supply terms now within the last ten years especially china has been encroaching on the u.s. economic dominance do you think it challenges the charges that opposes to washington and now go beyond just being financial ones. well i don't think peggy stand is willing to give up a military a as well as economic aid from washington to be replaced by a system from china but certainly as we all know pakistan's relations with the united states are in difficulties because of the nato attack on is a military outpost last year last month and washington d.c. we feel has to deliver the kind of apology demanded by the pakistani government and at the same time it is very significant that the top chinese diplomat when he was

in pakistan he met the president the prime minister the army chief of staff arguably the most powerful soldier in pakistan as well as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the head of the intel you intelligence into services intelligence so it seems that china would he would have been asked to give more military aid to pakistan to balance against the weakening ties between pakistan and the united states and this also possible that china made play a certain mediating role between the military and the government and certainly tensions between the two have been high in the recent year also pakistan's previously closed nato supply routes and recently backed out of a conference on afghanistan's future in a snub to be u.s. do you think it's going to be even bolder with chinese support. is the limit to it

is certain need to is quite a bit of anti american emotion in pakistan and both to go them and the military are careful. and be believed they have to show respect to this kind of key motions and have to stand stand up firm against the united states but. saying certain the pegasus thing cannot do without you can now make a military aid from the united states time a is always very helpful in terms of trade investment as well as economic and military aid so having an ally like time will help too much strengthening bargaining power is the business to see. joseph professor of political science at hong kong city university thanks for your input. and still to come ashore early we continue our look at the year's most significant events today focusing on japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami as

seen through the eyes of our correspondent on the ground. suddenly the tempo changed when there was this is an explosion and then the falls the explosion and the different react has in in fukushima one morning the happen in very quick succession and suddenly. everyone was very scared so. several of the news crews were. suddenly packed up and left and the woman that really difficult for me was i was on my own i didn't have anyone else to consoles. and i just realized at that point ok i'm going to get out. with this is. history in the making. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . to another some other stories making headlines across the globe a suicide car bomb exploded outside the iraqi interior ministry in baghdad killing

seven injuring dozens the attacker detonated an explosive filled car at a checkpoint leading up to the ministry during morning rush hour a wave of bombings have struck iraq since all u.s. troops pulled out earlier this month. a south korean delegation has been allowed into north korea to mourn the death of the late leader kim jong il a former south korean first lady and that and the head of the carmaker hyundai cross the heavily fortified border to pay their respects to north korean leader died from a heart attack nine days ago in two countries are still technically at war so all visits require government approval. r t is looking back at the ten key events of two thousand and eleven today we look at japan's massive earthquake and tsunami that killed more than ten thousand people it also led to a series of explosions at the fukushima nuclear plant that put the world on watch fearing an atomic disaster or he's ever been it was in japan hours before the tragedy struck.

covering the earthquake and tsunami in japan was very difficult because i was actually on my own the camera man and producer needed visas so they had to wait and i went with a flip camera a laptop when i was there and got a satellite phone and so on the road i was trying to do long lines whenever i could set up a satellite phone trying to get a link. and only when i actually got there that was when i fully understood the full force of the tsunami i didn't i didn't appreciate that until i actually saw the sea of de vry left. and i remember actually at one point setting up the latter want on for a boat being perched on a on a on a road just been dumped by the tsunami. and i was quite a surreal experience definitely. to begin with very strange if you were

in a building suddenly you. could feel yourself shaking slightly and it was difficult to walk in a straight line for about thirty seconds and gradually these three days i actually got used to the tremors as strange as that sounds suddenly there was there was panic i was outside of the car about to film a stand up. and the police and the emergency workers saw me just a sound saying. it was all in jack things but i could understand it was the scene for fear and panic and also they were shouting and tsunami literally yelling in my face to get back into the car there's no news crew there chanting and then to get back in the car and go inland as fast as possible because there was this. as a threat of another another tsunami there'd been a tremor the tide it receded and they thought another tsunami was coming so and then in those moments when. racing inland as fast as we could weaving our way in

between all the day every. member looking around and thinking hang on a minute there's no shelter here. what it was he was destroyed in the previous tsunami and there's no high ground and the only way we're going to be safe is to actually. beat the water. i had to take a taxi to sendai from tokyo it took about ten hours because all the transport links were down and arrived in the middle of the nights no hotels were open the only place to stay was actually a relief center and this was inside the local government offices and they were people there who just lost everything all they had were the clothes on their bank whatever positions they had with them at the time the earthquake struck and clearly the houses have been destroyed and they will all they had been in the relief since it was was a cardboard sheet of cardboard to lie on and i spent one not one night that i was

pretty unbearable because it was very cold there's very little food around there were rations but people would all they had was just a cucumber and a slice of bread so that was that was one the other actually. on top of this was also the fear of radiation because the situation it was just going from bad to worse and i was always in my mind it was a very real fear you could see it. amongst everyone else also. there wasn't any visible panic scene like it wasn't in japanese culture to panic and such but more there was certainly fear this is a town of a wall right around tough way between tokyo and fukushima i'm still one hundred fifty kilometers south of all of the nuclear power plants but already the radiation levels here over double lot of those in tokyo going to make me think one young fan . one young couple with a newborn baby actually just. i think

a week old also been born to cover the before the before the earthquake and. the mother wasn't particularly well some of the she was very weak and obviously she wanted to stay put there from sendai that they had left they just didn't trust what the government was saying that the sister situation in fukushima was under control and they just wanted to get out they were heading heading to a kid by whatever means possible. and then suddenly the tempo changed when there was a third explosion and then the fourth explosion and the different reactors in fukushima one morning the happening very quick succession and suddenly. everyone was very scared. so all the news crews were. just suddenly packed up and left and that really difficult for me was i was on my own i didn't have anyone else to consult. and i just realized at that point ok i'm going to get out this is the

start of japan's ravaged east coast norene like by that their bridges lie strewn all over the place here a walls collapsed over here alice is a fallen down such as the force of the tsunami this is also the point where we don't turn back because the dog account is reading the highest it has done all day one point zero four microsleep it's plain how obviously when i left japan. i felt great relief because covering the story being very stressful i barely eat in lump any sleds but the story for me wasn't over though until when i was back in moscow. the next day i had to get to the hospital rooms checked for radiation and thankfully i was clear. we've got more on the year's ten key global events as seen by our teams international correspondents and you can also check them out at r.t. dot com katie joins us next with a business update stay with us here on r.t. .

welcome to the business up day here and i'll say christmas is most balls of the wild but i rush the festive season has only just begun despite that concerns in europe and the us shop is steadily slowing down as marrying a culture of a found out russian men are at the forefront of the seasonal spending. years eve as when the russians give gifts and this year they're going all out at least eighty one billion dollars will be spend this the somber and the fifth of that will go towards presents consumer spending is expected to increase by twenty eight percent and muscovites will withdraw twenty percent more cash than any of the month of the year that's about five hundred sixty dollars each if you are a russian woman then you can look forward to a particularly lavish gift as man will spend twice as much i sir partners so

what kind of gifts are we're looking at it's well the most popular items are expected to be alcohol then we have a choice and finally household appliances so not all that romantic on the the christmas tree and the russians are not the only ones refusing to tighten their belts many experts had predicted americans and europeans would trim their spending but it's turned out to be a different story most surveys now suggest we will see an increase actually the average american is expected to spend up to twenty two percent more while in the u.k. some shops already seen an increase in sales more than last year but this may be because it's been such a tough year for ordinary working people now about the holiday season this here so feel that they have an excuse to finally spend some money on themselves and their loved ones. ok let's take out. all your pain traders are enjoying

boxing day the russian indices are gaining the most right infection was on the back of optimism the u.s. economy will continue to recover healthy believed like allow us. despite the lingering global finance of russia is still laboring to the trial of a. five percent more foreign investment in two thousand and twelve presidential. walk of it says he expects investors to start bringing in that cash in the second quarter of a good investment into russia grew around twelve percent the ship but most of the money will ship term credit which doesn't provide fundamental support for the economy. russia's focus is a step closer to welcoming will guess as russia and france register a joint venture to develop tourism in the region it plans to build five world class d.

resorts and create over three hundred thousand jobs that by twenty twenty eight says the money is needed back as hope to bring in between fifteen and twenty billion euro is to make the project a reality. by not restricting cyprus who got the first product of a credit package from russia before he used the country great at the weekend to take a two and a half david year eyes from moscow to support its economy orders top price waterhouse coopers calculates that around fifteen percent of cypresses g.d.p. is from foreign companies using the argument as an off shore sent up the majority of the fans are pretty aged with. a muzzle for me today my colleague dmitri medvedev will be head next hour good bye now.

the litmus. tests.